FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Nucleic acid hybridization is an excellent tool to identify nucleic acids, and is based upon the principle of complementary base pairing. When single stranded nucleic acids are incubated in solution, complementary base sequences pair to form double-stranded stable hybrid molecules, referred to as DNA complexes. The ability of single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) to form a hydrogen bonded structure with its complementary nucleotide sequence is often utilized as an analytical tool in recombinant DNA research to identify, isolate and characterize various nucleotide sequences of biological interest.
Detection of gonorrhea is one area in which nucleic acid hybridization holds great potential as a diagnostic tool in clinical medicine. Use of nucleotide probes provides an alternative diagnostic method that can potentially eliminate culturing while simultaneously increase the sensitivity and specificity of an assay for the detection of gonorrhea.
Gonorrhea is one of the most commonly reported bacterial infections. The causative agent, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is typically identified by culturing on selective agar medium, gram-staining, and cytochrome oxidase and carbohydrate utilization testing. Knapp, Clinical Microbiology Review (1988) 1(4):415-431. U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,230 discloses use of a novel test strain of N. gonorrhoeae in culture detection of N. gonorrhoeae DNA. These tests are usually sufficient to discriminate N. gonorrhoeae from other Neisseria species.
Commercial serological assays, including coagglutination and fluorescent antibody staining, have also been described for the identification of N. gonorrhoea. Knapp, supra.
This invention relates to novel nucleotide sequences and hybridization procedures for using these sequences. And in particular, this invention relates to nucleotide sequences that are specific for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.